


until death do us part

by EveryFandomHybrid



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Jeremiah's church, Kissing, M/M, Slow Dancing, Weddings, surprise wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26863336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EveryFandomHybrid/pseuds/EveryFandomHybrid
Summary: Bruce is invited to Jeremiah's church and is met with a surprise that he hadn't expected.
Relationships: Jeremiah Valeska/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 9
Kudos: 55





	until death do us part

There’s a note on Bruce’s bed. He has been searching for Jeremiah for over a month now and there’s a note on his bed written in distinctly neat and familiar handwriting.

Bruce rushes over from where he was frozen in the doorway and picks it up without even thinking about the various ways a note could be dangerous or even thinking about telling Alfred. Alfred would never let him pick up the note, much less investigate whatever it might have a clue for. 

Bruce flips open the note, ignoring the neat cursive of his name written on the front. The inside of the note has a few doodled hearts in the margin. Inside of the hearts is Jeremiah’s handwriting, which says that he’s invited to an address that Bruce knows is somewhere in the dark zone. It’s most likely a trap, but Bruce doesn’t have it within himself to care. He needs to find Jeremiah before he does anything else to the city or to the people that Bruce loves. He needs to stop Jeremiah.

So naturally, Bruce leaves the apartment immediately to find the address without telling anyone where he’s going.

He slips through the alleys and streets of the dark zone easily enough. It’s not hard to hide in the shadows of Gotham, especially when the sky is steadily growing darker. It will probably be completely dark by the time Bruce reaches the address, he thinks. Not that he minds. That should make it easier to sneak up on Jeremiah if he needs to. 

Bruce reaches the address when the sun is just about to set. There’s just a few rays of light still peaking over the horizon, painting the sky a deep red, with splashes of dark orange and purple. The sky is a strangely peaceful contrast to the chaos and darkness shrouding Gotham right now. It reminds him of a simpler time, when they weren’t cut off from the mainland––when they still had hope for a better Gotham. It’s a time that Bruce misses, in retrospect. 

Looking away from the sky, Bruce surveys the building that the address led him to. There’s something that resembles a shrine in a hole outside the building. Inside, there are candles with Jeremiah’s likeness on them as well as a bigger version of the painting propped up against the back. It’s creepy, and vaguely reminds him of Jerome’s cult. What’s up with the Valeskas and their cults? He’s definitely in the right place though, but why did Jeremiah bring him here? 

There’s only one way to find out, he thinks as he cautiously walks up the stone steps, to what is probably a trap or certain doom. Or both. 

The wooden doors creak as Bruce pushes them open and cautiously walks inside. What he sees inside makes him freeze in his tracks. 

On the path in between the pews, there are flowers––red rose petals––strewn across the floor. Jeremiah is at the front of the room, wearing a deep purple suit and a white dress shirt with a dark green tie. His hair is slicked back and he’s wearing dark red lipstick (and possibly other makeup, but Bruce isn’t an expert). He’s wearing his old glasses, and that alone is like a knife stabbing Bruce in the gut. It’s bittersweet and reminds him of better times, happier times. 

There’s also a priest who looks mildly traumatized standing by Jeremiah. 

A few seconds later, music starts to fill the room, echoing off the walls. Bruce looks around and his eyes settle on a literal orchestra (who also look mildly traumatized). He glances at Ecco standing off to the side in a red dress shirt and a black vest. She’s holding something. He doesn’t know what, but he can only hope that it’s not a bomb. 

Bruce finally takes a hesitant step forward. “Jeremiah.”

Jeremiah turns toward Bruce and smiles at him. “Bruce, I’m glad you decided to show up.”

“What do you want?”

“Come here, Bruce.”

Bruce takes another step forward and Jeremiah speaks up again.

“If you attack me or try anything, just know that Ecco will kill a member of the orchestra. And I would really hate for that to happen.”

Bruce glares at him and walks forward until he’s standing across from Jeremiah. “I’m here, now what do you want?”

Before he can react, Jeremiah reaches out and grabs both of Bruce’s hands. “You’ll see.”

Jeremiah nods to the priest, who nervously looks down at the book he’s holding and starts reading from it, and Bruce can only blink in surprise. “We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Jeremiah Valeska and Bruce Wayne. If you have any objections, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

Jeremiah gives Bruce a pointed look and Bruce glances at Ecco. At least he knows why Jeremiah invited him here now. A wedding with Jeremiah wasn’t something Bruce thought would ever happen  ~~ (maybe once upon a time, but those were just fantasies) ~~ , but here he is, in a church, while a kidnapped priest reads and a kidnapped orchestra plays music in the background. And Bruce doesn’t even know how to divorce a psychopath that’s obsessed with him.

The priest continues, interrupting Bruce’s thoughts. “Do you, Jeremiah, take Bruce to be your… lawfully wedded husband? From this day forward, to have and to hold, for better and worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish, till death do you part?”

“I do,” Jeremiah says softly, smiling at Bruce. Bruce is starting to realize that this is actually happening, he’s actually getting married to Jeremiah Valeska and it isn’t some weird fever dream. A long time ago, he would have been happy to even date Jeremiah, but he isn’t sure how he feels about this, and certainly not with the new Jeremiah––the one who shot Selena and stranded Gotham.

The priest turns to Bruce. “And do you, Bruce, take Jeremiah to be your lawfully wedded husband? From this day forward, to have and to hold, for better, for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish, till death do you part?” 

Bruce’s thoughts stutter to a stop. While he doesn’t particularly want to  _ marry  _ Jeremiah, he also doesn’t want the orchestra to die. He’ll just have to research divorces later. “...I do.”

Then Ecco walks up to them and holds the box she was holding to Jeremiah. He lets go of Bruce’s hands and takes the box from her. He carefully opens it and Bruce finally understands what it is when Jeremiah picks something up from it and gently grabs Bruce’s left hand to slide a ring on his ring finger. Bruce tries to ignore the way his breath hitches at the gentle contact, because he’d rather view his current emotions as fear than anything else, even though he’s been drowning in them ever since he started searching for Jeremiah. 

The ring is actually rather nice, if Bruce is being honest. It has a twisting gold band and an emerald at the center. Jeremiah gives him the other ring for Bruce to put on him––it’s similar to his own, but it has three smaller emeralds instead of one. Bruce takes Jeremiah’s left hand with his own and slides the ring onto his finger. 

The whole ceremony is making something inside Bruce ache. It’s like a hand gripping his heart and squeezing it and it just keeps getting worse. It’s just reminding him of how everything went wrong and how messed up Jeremiah is now. How Bruce can never have anything normal or simple with him ever again. 

Bruce is pulled out of his thoughts by Jeremiah gently squeezing his hand. He looks up at Jeremiah and nearly flinches at the soft and concerned look on his face. He doesn’t grace Jeremiah with an explanation, instead looking back towards the priest who has started speaking again.

“Before these witnesses, you have pledged to be joined in marriage and exchanged rings. By the authority vested in me by the state of New Jersey, I now pronounce you husband and husband. You may now... kiss.”

Bruce looks back at Jeremiah to find him smiling at him. Then Jeremiah wraps an arm around his waist, holding Bruce’s left hand in his own and pulling him closer. Bruce’s thoughts stutter to a stop briefly (and his heart too, but he doesn’t want to think about that) and then there are lips pressing against his own. Bruce blinks in surprise and finds himself instinctually relaxing against Jeremiah. 

When Jeremiah pulls back, Bruce finds himself at war with himself. On one hand he wants to pull Jeremiah in for another kiss and let his emotions consume him. On the other, he wants to hurt Jeremiah for all he’s done, wants him to pay for the pain he’s caused everyone in Bruce’s life. In Gotham.

Screw it, Bruce thinks as he grabs Jeremiah’s tie and pulls him in for a rough kiss. He bites Jeremiah’s bottom lip and feels some sort of sick satisfaction at the taste of metal that spills out and onto Bruce’s tongue. Why not both?

When he pulls back, Jeremiah is looking at him with fascination and adoration in his eyes. His lipstick looks slightly smudged and the blood is barely distinguishable from the deep red color. Bruce finds himself becoming hyper aware of the taste of blood still staining his lips and he darts his tongue out to try and lick it off. It still lingers in the back of his throat, acrid and heavy, and he pretends not to notice the way Jeremiah’s eyes linger on his lips after that. 

Then Jeremiah finds Bruce’s eyes again and steps back with a smile. He holds out one hand. “Dance with me, Bruce.”

Bruce hesitantly takes his hand, and then Jeremiah’s guiding him down the aisle to the back of the room where there’s more floor space. The orchestra seems to take this as a signal, because they begin to play another song. It has a slower tempo and it’s not one that Bruce recognizes, but he doesn’t particularly dislike it. It vaguely reminds him of the classical music that his father would play in his study and–

Before Bruce can finish his thought, Jeremiah is pulling him in and placing his free hand on Bruce’s back. Bruce recognizes the position and (paired with the music) he can definitely tell that it’s a slow dance, so he lifts his free hand and places it on Jeremiah’s shoulder. Jeremiah smiles at him, and then they’re swaying side to side in time with the music.

Jeremiah gently leans his forehead against Bruce’s and closes his eyes. It’s strange how much Jeremiah seems to trust him, Bruce thinks. It’s strange  ~~ how much Bruce seems to trust Jeremiah ~~ how comfortable Bruce seems around Jeremiah. It’s probably just because they used to be friends. Because they used to be in each other's space all the time, sometimes even for hours.  ~~ Because Bruce loves him.  ~~

The song slows to a stop and the orchestra starts another one, but Jeremiah is pulling away from Bruce and looking into his eyes, stopping them both so that they stand in place. There’s something in his eyes that Bruce would tentatively label as sadness or longing, and it makes something inside of him ache. 

With a sigh, Jeremiah leans down and presses a chaste kiss to Bruce’s lips. He pulls away slightly, leaving no less than an inch of space between them. 

“I love you, Bruce,” Jeremiah murmurs, quiet enough that only Bruce can hear him. The music almost seems to fade away as Bruce is absorbed in Jeremiah’s eyes, in their own little moment of time and space.

“I know,” Bruce whispers back, because he does. He saw the longing in Jeremiah’s eyes when he told Bruce that he was his very best friend in the graveyard. He saw the adoration in Jeremiah’s eyes when on the night he shot Selina in front of Bruce. He sees the love in Jeremiah’s eyes now, absinthe flavored with obsession. “I know,” He repeats, because he doesn’t know what else to say.  ~~ Because he doesn’t want those three words to slip out of his mouth, doesn't want anyone to know. ~~

Jeremiah places another soft kiss against Bruce’s lips, and Bruce can tell that he already knows.

Bruce opens his mouth when Jeremiah pulls away (to say what? He doesn’t know. An apology, maybe?), but Jeremiah shushes him. “You don’t need to say it. Not now, not ever. I know.”

And he does, doesn’t he? Because he and Jeremiah are two sides of the same coin, and for some reason Jeremiah knows him better than he even knows himself. Because for some reason they both know each other better than anyone else. That’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it always will be. 

Because if soulmates exist, Bruce knows that Jeremiah would be his. Because they really do have a connection; because fate is cruel and twisted. 

So instead of saying something, Bruce gives Jeremiah one last kiss. It feels like an apology, but it doesn’t feel like a goodbye. It feels like a ‘see you soon’. Then Bruce pulls away, away from Jeremiah and away from his arms, and Jeremiah lets him. They both know that they’ll see each other again, because they’re fated to meet. They’re fated like two magnets, drawn together by opposition, and bound to crash into each other. 

Bruce leaves the church without looking back, and if he looks at the new ring on his finger, it’s not like there’s anyone around to see. (When Alfred asks about it upon Bruce’s return, he just tells him that he found it on the ground and liked it. They both know that it’s a lie, but Alfred doesn’t bother to call him out. Something tells Bruce that Alfred knows that he’s better off without knowing the truth). And if Bruce stares at it in bed at night, when the moonlight is reflecting off of the metal and illuminating the gem in a way that reminds him of Jeremiah’s eyes, then who’s around to see but himself? Who’s around to hear the whispered words that finally fall from his lips before he drifts off to sleep? 

~~ “I love you.” ~~


End file.
